Tag Archives: Washington D.C.

The Ghost of a Suffragette

Age: 55

Date of Interview: 12/03/24

Date of Story: 07/2000

Informant Name: DP

Language: English

Collector’s name: LP

Nationality: USA

Occupation: IT enginneer

Primary Language: English

Residence at the time: Washington DC

Current Residence: Pennsylvania

It was dark night in July 2000 after the museum closed.   The museum was silent and dark.   We could only hear the wind outside the windows.  The stairs creaked as we walked up the stairs.  We went from room to room, checking the exhibits.  The moonlight shown through the windows as we walked.  I heard a noise on the far side of the building, in the room opposite of the room I was in.  It sounded like a clatter.  Someone had tripped.  I went towards the noise, and found nothing was there except an overturned chair.   I picked up the chair, and started to walk away and cross the hall, when in my peripheral vision I saw light.  I turned around and saw it.  A woman in what seemed to be late 19th century bed clothes, glowing and walking across the room towards me.  I stood and stared and was about to call out, and the woman ran past me and into the and wall and disappeared.

Joke: How To Get A Drummer Off Your Porch

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Washington D.C.
Performance Date: March 28, 2018
Primary Language: English

For our discussion section, we were required to meet up with a fellow student and collect folklore from each other. LA is the person I collected from, PH is myself. Our conversation is as follows:

LA: I have jokes, if you want those.
PH: Oh, yeah.
LA: My childhood friend’s dad is this older Jewish punk dude and he had a lot of good jokes.

(pause)

Alright, so I have two drummer jokes which are frequently passed around for people in bands because we love to make jokes about drummers.

Number one: told to me a long time ago by a family friend who was in a punk band in the ‘90s.

What do you do to get a drummer off your porch?

PH: What?

LA: Offer to pay for the pizza.

The second joke collected is documented in its own post.

Joke: How You Know A Drummer’s At Your Door

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Washington D.C.
Performance Date: March 28, 2018
Primary Language: English

For our discussion section, we were required to meet up with a fellow student and collect folklore from each other. LA is the person I collected from, PH is myself. Our conversation began like this:

LA: I have jokes, if you want those.
PH: Oh, yeah.
LA: My childhood friend’s dad is this older Jewish punk dude and he had a lot of good jokes.
(pause)
Alright, so I have two drummer jokes which are frequently passed around for people in bands because we love to make jokes about drummers.

Then, the informant told me the first joke which is documented in a different post. Here is the second joke:

LA: Drummer joke number 2: told to me by my friend’s dad, he was also in a punk band in high school.
How do you know when a drummer’s at your door?

PH: How?
LA: ‘Cause the knocking speeds up and he doesn’t know when to come in.

Cherry Blossom Festival

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 20
Primary Language: English

“Every year in D.C… Washington D.C., there’s what’s called a Cherry Blossom Festival. And ummm… it’s in the spring and it… happens each year when all of the cherry blossom trees… blossom… I guess…ummm… and… it’s super cool because everything is that bright washed out shade of pink and there are pedals everywhere especially after the festival is over and like the trees like… and the pedals have fallen everywhere because of the wind. I used to think it was super cool when I was like eight, but now I just think it’s kind of a nuisance because it happens every year but it creates a ton of traffic and I can’t get where I need to go… And it happens in D.C. and like in Annapolis there’s like… that’s like an hour’s distance and there’s still traffic so it is a gridlock nightmare but it’s still a super cool part of D.C. that not a lot of people that… don’t spend a lot of time in D.C. realize. So it’s a fun tradition”

This one is a modern festival based on a natural phenomenon. We don’t usually have that many new festivals based on these phenomenons in modern day. We don’t celebrate the winter solstice or anything really but this seems to be a festival representational off of a new age of spring and the aesthetic beauty of the cherry blossoms of Washington D.C.