Tag Archives: legend

Electrician Ghost Story

So my uncle was at this bar, in like Philly, and he’s sitting there. My Dad and his brothers are so talkative, and they will just talk to strangers. And so my uncle introduces himself to the person next to him and they start talking and the guy says that he is an electrician. My uncle asks if he has any crazy stories from his job and the guy says “actually I do. I’ll never forget this day”. So the electrician begins to tell the story: “This old lady asks me to do work on this closet. And this guy comes into the room and I freak out because I thought just the old lady lived there. And I explain I’m there to do the electricity and the guy just leaves. And the old lady comes and I explain, oh your husband comes in, and the old lady says that she does not have a husband. I find a photo of the man and I explain that this is the man I saw, and the old lady says that’s her husband but he died ”. So the electrician freaked out and left. And my uncle goes “That’s so crazy, I’m also from rural pennsylvania, what area” and the electrician goes “Westchester” and my uncle goes “wait so am I, what street” because Westchester is a small area and he says the street and the house he was in and my uncle goes “Oh my god, I used to live there and my mom still lives there”. So supposedly, this electrician saw the ghost of my grandpa. 

Context:

The informant is a college student explaining different folklore from their family, diving into how their family has lore and traditions that are particular to their folk community. 

Personal Thoughts:

This particular ghost story shows how different folk groups can overlap, sharing similar lore. As the electrician shares this legend, the uncle is able to connect with him on being related to the ghost, allowing for lore to grow between them. This also demonstrates how folklore can live on in different folk groups, as both the uncle and the electrician are a part of other folk groups, and as this legend gets shared by both of them to their respective communities, this will allow the ghost story to continue to spread. And since they may have their own interpretations of it, more variations of the legend will come up, allowing for this legend to live on even more. 

Loch Ness monster

Content:

Y: So, when I was a kid- like elementary school- I was super afraid of the Loch Ness monster. I don’t remember where I learned about it. I think maybe my dad had watched some show about it. But I was terrified. Like, if I was in a pool, like not in the shallow end, I thought the monster was swimming beneath me. I think a kid had told me that monsters lived in pools and would, like, grab your legs and drag you down, right? So I thought the Loch Ness monster would grab me in the pool. 

Me: What did you know about the Loch Ness monster at that time?

Y: Just that it was big and green and had a long neck and hid in the water all the time. 

Background: Y is a 20 year old who was born and raised in New Jersey. She now resides in Los Angeles, California. 

Context: This story was told to me at a hangout among friends.

Analysis: I was drawn to Y’s story because I had never considered the lore surrounding the Loch Ness monster to be scary. Instead, it seemed in the same vein as Bigfoot or Mothman, who people just wanted to search for in an attempt to prove their existence. Instead, Y’s exposure to the lore at a young age affected her perception of the myth, and the myth combined with other childhood lore to shape her fear. 

El Cadejos

–Informant Info–

Nationality: Costa Rican

Age: 47

Occupation: Unemployed

Residence: Los Angeles

Date of Performance/Collection: 2022

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): Spanish  

(*Notes: The informant will be referred to as GC and the interviewer as K. Many parts of this story were told in Spanish and appears here in its translated form, translated by her son)

Background info: GC is a mother of 2 who grew up in a small town in Costa Rica. She recalls a story she was told by her mother as a child to scare her away from sins such as drinking and partying late. She recalls this story was always told when an uncle or a brother came home drunk.

Context: GC told this story to me over drinks, laughing at the scary parts and occasionally pausing for humorous, dramatic effects. She also elaborated that she never told this story to her children, but her siblings would tell it to theirs. She says her own experiences were scary enough. 

K: Ok so, whats the name of this folklore and how do you know it? Like who told you?

GC: It’s called “El cadejos” and I was always told it growing up by my grandma when my uncles or brother would come home drunk *Laughter*; I think it was more to shame them than it was to scare me!

K: *Laughter* Ok ok, so the context of the performance is like a scary story meant to teach you a lesson, that was told when an event, like someone coming home drunk, occurred?

GC: Yes yes *Pause, pours herself a drink* I suppose it didn’t teach me much, I never encountered it

K: So you want to get into the folklore now?

GC: So, the story goes that El Cadejos is a large, terrifying dog that stalks the streets of uh my hometown-

K: What’s the name of the town?

GC: Santa Domingo

K: Ok sorry uh…you can continue

GC: Already scaring you huh? *laughter*. As I was saying, he would prowl the streets of Santa Domingo, especially the bars, and pray on young drunk teenagers, killing them. His origin story goes that he was once a young teenager himself, and to punish his abusive father for coming home drunk, he planned to uh…scare him by dressing up in like…uh…furs and such to look like a dog

K: Wow, I mean I get it

GC: Exactly! *laughter*, no one uh blamed him for trying to scare his dad. They blame the dad for how he reacted! Most people actually uh…felt bad for el Cadejos at first. But then he started to uh…*pause, drink* kill their kids so that feeling went away.

K: Yeah I think that would turn most people away from your side ya know? *laughter from both parties*. You can continue, please

GC: So he tried, and actually uh succeeded in scaring his dad. His dad, super drunk and angry, said to him “if you want to be a dog so badly, you can be one forever!” Which is kinda extreme if you ask me *laughter*. So, el Cadejos was cursed to live as a terrifying, ugly immortal dog. No one really knows why he started killing younger teens.

K: Do you have any like… hypothesis?

GC: Yes, everyone does. I think it started as killing drunk adults as revenge and anger towards his…his father but then it devolved into like inward anger? Like…he was so mad he couldn’t go out and have fun as a teenager he started killing other teens.

Interpretation:
This folklore is meant to scare children and younger teens away from “undesirable paths” like the obvious drinking and less obvious thinks like wandering the streets at night and teen pregnancy. As the informant says, it didn’t really work on her or anyone she knew, people grew out of being scared and wanted to go have fun. taking the informants Costa Rican background into consideration, we can gather a few key themes. First, Costa Rica, like many south American countries, is heavily catholic. The idea od a terrifying creature killing those who sin (drinking in this case) reflects those deep set values of staying pure. The nonchalance with how the informant told the story is also interesting to note. The feelings toward drinking had obviously changed since the story’s origin. This story, meant to be scary and teaching a lesson, had turned humorous when telling it to me. The information also said that she didn’t tell it to her children, but some of her siblings did. The transformation of El Cadejos from a boy to a dog for disrespecting his father also speaks to the culture. Although it made a point that the father was not a good man (drinking, abuse), it still thought an appropriate enough story to tell to children, as a lesson for respecting your parents, which also runs deep in Costa Rican culture.

The Lost Dutchman’s Mine

–Informant Info–

Nationality: American

Age: 53

Occupation: Senior VP for a development company

Residence: Pheonix, Ariozna

Date of Performance/Collection: 2022

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): N/A

(Notes-The informant will be referred to as MW and the interviewer as K)

Background info: MW is a father of 2 who grew up and now resides in Pheonix, Arizona. I was told this story over the phone.

K: So, what’s the uh title of the story? And how do you know it? Like who told it to you or where did you like hear it?

MW: It’s called The Lost dutchman’s mine, and I heard about it from uh…my parents and friends, I guess

K: It’s one of those things you just kind of always hear? Is it like a fireside story or…?

MW: Yeah, yeah. It’s definitely a fireside story, but not really like…scary, ya know? Just a story you hear around.

K: Ok cool, uh…whenever you’re ready to tell it, go-ahead

MW: So the story goes that uh…way back in the 1800s, like during gold rush time there was an uh…Dutch guy that came down to Arizona. One day he went into an uh…bar or something in the settlement with this huge *exaggerates voice here for emphasis* chunk of gold. Everyone asked him where it came from, and he uh refused to uh tell them outright. He only left one hint for people.

K: What was the hint?

MW: Oh uh…It was like…you could see the entrance of the mine from weaver’s needle which is a mountain in Arizona. It’s like an uh peak that looks like the eye of a needle

K: So, has anyone found it? Or has anyone gone like looking for it?

MW: Oh yeah! Loads have gone looking; I think like 2 or 3 people have even died from trying to find it, but no one has found it yet.

K: So, do people actually believe in it? Or is it more of a fun let’s go look kinda adventure?

MW: Like most stories, I guess there are always believers, most people uh…go hik8ing up in the mountains to try and find it in like..highschool or right before college though *laughter* I remember doing it with my friends when I was like 16 or 17.

K: Oh! So there’s a right of passage aspect to it?

MW: Sometimes yeah, definitely.

Interpretation:
I really enjoyed hearing this story. It, at least from my perspective, did encompass the American dream in a sense. The idea of both the gold rush, which has long been held as a pinnacle of American determination and achievement, and the idea of adventure and finding a long-lost mine combine to form, as stated, a tale of the American dream in a sense. Another aspect I want to note is the coming of age part of the story. This story, at least according to the informant, dates back to his great-grandfather. That part of the story represents a lot of long-held more conservative beliefs. Arizona, for a very long time, has held conservative values. The informant noted that it was really only high school boys who went to try and find the mine as a coming of age process. Even later on in life, it was mainly men who attempted. The idea of a rugged mine full of riches hidden deep within the scorching mountains, and someone going to find it, is very traditionally masculine.

Ghost of Curry Hall

TG is a 25 year old graduate student and cultural forensic anthropologist. She grew up in Maryland and currently resides in Tennessee. She was an active member at her university.

Context: TG claims that she had heard this story many times while studying undergrad and that although she has not experienced it personally, many of her friends have encountered the ghost first hand.

Transcript (discussed over the phone):

Collector: What is the background story of the ghost?

TG: Basically, while they were building the two freshmen dorms, Frazer and Curry Hall, they were doing some electrical work but they didn’t put the elevators in yet so the elevator shafts were just very deep dirt holes. One of the workers had brought their toddler to the site, which was a big mistake to begin with. The worker put the child down for a second and the toddler rolled into the elevator shaft in the hallway of the 10th floor and died. Plenty of people I know have said that in the same hallway of Curry, you can hear a child’s laughter and it was very disturbing.

Collector: Do you believe in the ghost?

TG: I believe in ghosts so yes. While it’s possible that students just hear laughter and assume it is the ghost, I don’t think it’s impossible.

Thoughts/Analysis: Although ghost stories are legends and therefore may or may not be true, the impact they have on people’s lives is very real. As the informant discussed the fact that students in Curry Hall could actually hear child’s laughter is something that they will tell their friends, family, and children. That is shown by the informant being told this story by her friends. This shows how legends spread and how socially influenced they are. This account by TG can even be considered a memorate, where personal experiences of residents turned into campus folklore.