Tag Archives: urban legend

Mikey Life Cereal Urban Legend

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“So, in the 70s and 80s, one of the more popular television commercials I remember was for Life Cereal. And there was a little kid in it, and basically it was like he hated everything, and then they gave him this bowl of Life Cereal and he started to eat it and it was like ‘Mikey won’t like it, he like- he hates everything!’ And then it’s like ‘Oh Mikey! He likes it!’

…I don’t know how this started, but there was some urban legend that started to go around that Mikey had died. And he died because he ate Pop Rocks and then drank a can of Coca Cola. And apparently either exploded his insides or something like that and he had died.”

Context

J, my mother, currently lives in Seattle, Washington in the United States, but grew up in various towns in Ontario, Canada. She recalls that she first heard this legend from her friends on the playground when she was relatively young. J gave the additional context that this Life Cereal commercial would air often during Saturday morning cartoons, which meant that “all the kids knew who Mikey was.” As a result of the legend, she and the other kids on the playground would dare each other to eat Pop Rocks and drink Coca Cola, to objections of “‘No, Mikey died from that!’” She concluded telling me the legend with the following:

“I do believe it was eventually dispelled, I don’t think Mikey was dead? Um, [laughs] but actually to this day I don’t even really know! All I know is that drinking Coke and eating Pop Rocks is apparently really bad for you, can kill you.” 

Analysis

J’s recollections indicate that this urban legend was primarily a piece of children’s folklore. Drawing from Folk Groups and Folklore Genres: an Introduction chapter author Jay Mechling, this legend seems to be an example of children experimenting with disorder and parody. By taking a benign commercial featuring a child eating cereal and twisting it into a gruesome urban legend, my mother and her peers were able to discuss the concept of death and dangerous/unhealthy foods in a way that exaggerates, mocks, and inverts adult ways of perceiving these topics. That this legend also sparked a form of play (daring each other to eat Pop Rocks and drink Coca Cola) further allowed them to explore a sense of danger in the safe proximity of adults. This legend could also be another example of how Mechling discussed commercial foods being a particular target for ‘antithetical’ children’s folklore as a representation of underlying fears about bodily safety and changes.

Bumper Skiing Urban Legend

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“When we were little up in Canada, when it would snow, which seemed like a lot, and the snow would get packed down on the streets in our neighborhood, me and my friend would put on our ski clothes…and we would hide in the bushes near a stop sign. Then, when a car would stop at the stop sign, we would sneak in behind the car, grab the bumper, squat down so our feet were on the ground, and when the car would start to go we’d basically be skiing behind the car. And one time, when I was little, I was probably eleven or twelve, someone told me the story of the kid who was bumper skiing one time and got his finger stuck in the bumper, and the car pulled his finger right off!”

Context

 M grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, but currently lives in Seattle, Washington, The United States of America. He called the activity from which this urban legend stemmed “bumper skiing,” which, from his description, seemed to be a regular and popular activity when the weather conditions were right. The ‘someone’ he mentioned telling him the story was one of his friends; he also did not know the specific identity of the boy who lost his finger in the legend. When asked if this legend influenced him or his attitudes and behaviors towards bumper skiing at all, M said: “Well, I was a little more careful where I put my hand!”

Analysis

To me, this urban legend seems to serve two main purposes. On the one hand, it seems like a way to acknowledge and even emphasize the dangerous play taking place and create a greater sense of risk. That the boy in the story is unnamed creates a sense that it could happen to anyone. It also perhaps allows for a way to externalize and discuss personal fears and anxieties around the practice more indirectly. However, this legend is also clearly a cautionary tale about the harm that may be caused by improperly bumper skiing. M’s telling of the context surrounding bumper skiing indicated that it was a somewhat secretive form of play with little to no adult supervision. For M personally, the legend had a tangible effect on how he partook in bumper skiing, making him more conscientious of his own safety. The spread of this legend could create a way for children to check in on and enforce each other’s safety by drawing on a general sense of folk authority and knowledge.

Haunted Military Island

My friend, who is originally from Singapore, recalls them and their friends sharing stories about people who’d go off to Tekong Island, a training facility where those “shipped off” would receive military training, mostly mandatory. On this island, many have claimed to have heard strange noises deep within the jungle regions of the island and sightings of “shadowy” female figures. From within the facility, strange and random noises would appear during the night such as toilets flushing or the sound of moving objects. There have also been reports of people mysteriously disappearing while at the island or falling ill or dead without explanation during night marches. 

My friend has heard many stories like these from people in their school and amongst their peers, some of whom did end up going to serve on that island after high school.

I personally enjoy hearing about mysterious occurrences such as these ones. It seems like something I’d want to listen to a podcast about.

Taily Poe Colorado Cryptid

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“This guy is living in a cabin and he has two dogs, and he lives in the middle of nowhere. There’s no cars, no grocery stores, it’s old times, so he goes hunting in the dead of winter. He’s walking for hours and sees nothing, no animals, and he thinks it’s so strange. The woods are eerily quiet. He comes back and he goes to bed hungry and so do his dogs. Next day he goes out and looks for food again, and it’s eerily quiet, not even wind in the trees, just nothing, it doesn’t feel real. No food, no rabbits, no deer, no plants. Just snow and white and quiet. His dogs and him go to bed hungry. Next day he goes out, he’s exhausted, he hasn’t had food in him, his dogs are exhausted, he’s been walking for miles and miles. He’s lost and worn out. He sees a flash of black, and he’s like “what was that?” He sees the flash of black again and he shoots it. All he gets is this little tuft of meat that fell off, it seemed like it was cut off from the creature he shot. It seems like his tail, so he takes the tail and carries it back to his cabin. It’s not a lot of meat but it’s all he has, so he fixes it up, cleans off the skin and cooks it up, and he gives the leftovers to his dogs. He goes to bed full, wakes up in the morning, and goes hunting again. Suddenly it seems like the woods are alive again, he’s finding food, he’s finding rabbits, there’s some spring green poking through the snow, so he comes back with a good collection of food. He goes home, but as it gets dark it starts to get cold and eerie again. He starts to hear this voice from outside and some creaking on the roof. It goes “Tailyyyyyy poooooe. Taaaaaaaily poe.” He’s like “is this the wind? What noise am I hearing?” He hears it again. “Taaaaaaily poe, taaaaaaaaily poe.” He looks outside and sees nothing, it’s not windy out, so he closes the door and locks it cause he’s getting freaked out. He gets under the covers and he hears the voice all night but he tries to sleep. He wakes up in the morning, goes hunting again and gets a good amount of food. He’s got plenty of rabbits, he shot a buck. He goes home, cooks up his dinner. When it gets dark out again, he hears the voice again. “Taaaaaaaaily poe.” He checks outside, there are no branches scratching against his window, there’s nothing on the roof even though there’s incessant creaking. He closes and locks the door, but then he looks back at it and the door is cracked open. He hears it again “taaaaaaaily poe, taaaaaily poe.” He goes to bed even though he hears it all through the night. Next morning he takes his dogs out on a walk, goes fishing, he comes home and he cooks up the fish and feeds it to his dogs. Then he notices his dogs start barking at the door. Woof woof. So he lets them out, thinks maybe they have to pee, and the dogs start running. He calls them back, and they’re very well trained dogs, but only one comes back. He wonders what happened to the other, but he knows his dogs don’t run away so he figures the other dog will be back in the morning. So he closes the door, brings the one dog inside. It’s too dark and cold to look for the other one even though he’s very worried. He starts to hear it again. “Taaaaaaailey poe. Taaaaaailey poe. I know you have my tailey poe.” Now this part is new. He hears the creaking on the roof, wakes up in the morning, spends the whole day looking for his dog “Boy come here, come here!” He comes back to his cabin after looking for his dog, and sees his dog’s tail on the ground outside his cabin. He goes back inside, and the other dog starts barking at the door again. He lets his dog out, and the dog runs away. He’s now alone, he’s lost his two best hunting dogs. He closes the door, locks it, he’s freaked out and staring at the wall. The door slowly opens and he sees a black figure run towards him. He feels this pressure on his chest. He hears “Taily poe, taily poe, I’ll finally have my taily poe.” And then he dies. The end. So when you’re camping and you hear the wind saying “taaaaaily poe,” that means that Taily Poe is still looking for his tail and he might get you.” 

Context:

M is a 19-year-old college student from Colorado Springs, Colorado. She often goes camp and hiking in the woods, and her town has a lot of different cryptids and legendary monsters that people look for and talk about when in the woods. She says this particular story is a campfire story, and that Taily Poe is a cryptid that might come after you in the woods when you’re sleeping. She says that the story is meant to be ever longer, and that you’re supposed to add more to the story to make it as long as possible, she says the point is to add suspense. 

Analysis: 

Taley Poe is a legendary cryptid who is supposed to be wandering the woods. He’s one of the many legendary creatures that cryptozoologists search for in deeply forested areas like Colorado. Cryptids like him arise from people’s fear of the wild and the unknown, both the certain knowledge that there are frightening uncontrollable beasts in the woods, and from the idea that the wild is the land of the devil. This particular story is also similar to a tale though because oftentimes the teller of the story doesn’t actually believe it happened, they’re just trying to frighten people while camping. The story is told in a very particular structure, and the informant said herself that you can add things to make it longer to add more suspense. This is an example of the Oral Formulaic Theory at work, earlier known as the Perry-Lord Hypothesis. This is the idea that folk story tellers are able to remember really long stories and are able to draw them out to engage the audience by adding certain formulaic speech into the story. We see examples of this formulaic speech in this rendition of the story, with the descriptions of which animals the  man was or wasn’t able to find while hunting, with the added description to detail his plight (ex:  “He’s exhausted, he hasn’t had food in him, his dogs are exhausted, he’s been walking for miles and miles. He’s lost and worn out.”) The phrase “taily poe” can be drawn out to as long as the speaker wants and can be repeated as many times as they want. We also see the importance of performance in the way the speaker sometimes speaks as the character, seen in the dog bark sounds she makes and the “here boy, here boy.” All of these aspects draw the listener in and add to the ambiance of fear. People love to hear ghost stories and cryptid stories by the campfire, perhaps for a similar reason to why people love horror movies. They’re able to dabble in a bit of the emotion of fear while they’re actually in a safe, controlled environment surrounded by people they know and trust.

Bay Area Catholic School Ghost Story

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“My all girls Catholic school was founded by these nuns in the 1950s but before it was a school it was a mansion called the Cole mansion, built in like 1916 or something. It was owned by this guy, Frederick Cole, we call him Freddy. He was a young wealthy dude who’s dad made money in steel production. He’s basically a trust fund baby, so he builds a nice mansion in the Burlingame hills overlooking the San Francisco Bay. And so Freddy built his beautiful mansion, it’s pretty big with a working elevator, bunch of servants, big bedroom. He’s living there with his wife. At the time, it’s all the rage to have a maid from France. And so his wife is like, a huge entertainer at their house, and she’s like “I need to have a French maid for my parties.” And so she sends a letter to her aunt in France who’s visiting, and she’s like “While you’re in France, can you pick me up a french maid?” So when her aunt comes back she brings an 18 year old girl named Annette. Annette speaks no English, like very very little, and she works at the house. While she’s there, Freddy, the little pervert, is all creepy on her. He’s like harassing her and will not stop bugging her. She’s like not having it, but the wife of Freddy is like “Oh my god my husband is jealous of this 18 year old I brought into the house, I’m going to get her fired. And not only am I going to get her fired, I’m going to tell all the other people in the Bay Area, all the other rich people, that she had sex with my husband and she’s an adulterer.” And so the wife went around telling everyone that Annette had sex with her husband and was all like, not holy or whatever. So she fires Annette, Annette can’t get hired anywhere, so you know what she does? She files a wrongful termination lawsuit in the San Francisco court in like, early 1900s, and she wins! Which is so rare. Then Freddy takes her to court to try and overturn it, and he’s going down the elevator to the courtroom and when the elevator opens, he sees Annette. And Annette just looks at him and tells him he lied, pulls out a pistol, and shoots him in the stomach. So this man is rushed to the hospital and they stich him up, but they leave the lead bullet in him, and Annette gets deported back to France. Freddy is recovering, but the bullets’ still inside him. So he tells people that he’s started receiving these postcards, and each one says “I will see you soon, from Annette.” And each one gets closer and closer, so it starts in France, then there’s one from England, then there’s one from New York, then she goes through Canada down to Washington, then to Portland. She books herself a boat from Portland to China, but there’s a stop in San Francisco. She gets out there, and the postcards stop. And the next day Freddy is found hanging in his mansion. And so people don’t know if he killed himself because he was worried Annette was gonna get him or if she got to him or if she even was there, because he still had the lead bullet in him and lead makes you go insane. And so people think he imagined it all, it’s like totally up to interpretation, people don’t know. Anyways, Freddy is now a ghost in the mansion and my ceramics teacher has seen him multiple times, people believe he still exists in the mansion on campus. My ceramics teacher had to go to the kiln on the bottom floor right by the servants’ stairs. Freddy was renowned for hanging out in the servants chambers and hitting on them. So she was in the basement unloading the kiln for pottery class, and she was bending over the kiln and she feels someone grab her waist. She turns around and no ones there. So she thinks it was him hitting on her, cause he’s a creep.” 

Context:

B is an 18-year-old college student from the Bay Area, California. She used to go to a Catholic all girls school, where she says teachers would tell this ghost story about the campus. She doesn’t know which facts are certifiably true, but she says she was first told this story while on a campus tour by an old nun who she trusts to be reliable. Teachers share this story with the students around the school. 

Analysis:

This story is a legend about Freddy’s ghost. It’s told to me as a “friend of a friend” story, so the speaker has never actually had an interaction with this supposed ghost. It’s clearly a legend because it could possibly be true, or it could not. No one really knows why Freddy died. This uncertainty about his death could be the reason for his haunting. Ghost stories tend to follow people who weren’t properly buried or their death wasn’t settled, because it’s very important for communities that their community members get the proper burial and death rituals. If the ritual is done wrong, it leads to haunting. It’s particularly interesting that this story is spread around a Catholic school, as in the Christian religion killing oneself is a sin. If Freddy really did hang himself, that’s a hard conversation for Christians to have because it means he went to hell. Ghosts probably form around these figures that die in ways that Christians don’t see to be natural to serve both as a warning to others against sinning, and as a way of understanding and reconciling what happens to someone who dies in a sinful manner. Another aspect of this ghost story is the way in which it is performed. When this story was told to me it was told by a girl the same age as Annette, and the school is an all-girls school so almost everyone who tells and knows this story is a girl. By looking at the social context of the story, we see how it takes a very feminist lean. It’s almost a satisfying revenge story for women, as they watch the lying creep suffer for his actions against the young girl. If this were told by someone else, Annette may be the villain. But both the speaker and the audience receive the story as a triumph for Annette. This bias can be seen in the vocabulary the speaker uses, calling him a “little pervert” and “creep.” It makes sense that this story would circulate amongst a group of young women as a victory for them against this creepy man. It reminds me of murder ballads, which is a type of legend that often details the murder of a young woman and paints the male killer in a positive light as opposed to a condemning one. In an environment filled with young women, the same plot instead is inverted to declare Annette as the victorious hero. Looking again at the social context, the audience was a group of young women the same age as the speaker, and she was often interrupted by expletives denouncing Freddy as a pervert as well.