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Urban Legends and Legends
Tanner Burt
Utah State University
Fife Folklore Archives
Logan, Utah
Mythology: Folklore
Mr. Brad Gibbons
Fall 2014
Mountain Crest High School, Hyrum UT
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Table of Contents
Release Forms
Cover Essay
Autobiographical Sketch
list of Informants
Item No. Informant Title
1 J. lilies Bad Wine
2 Skidmore Frozen Disney/Disney on Ice
3 T. lilies The Nunnery
4 T.lilles The Fart in the Dark • 5 H. Burt The Vanishing Hitchhiker
6 H. Burt The Choking Doberman
7 H.Burt The Hook
8 H. Burt What's That Smell
9 H. Burt The Tapeworm Diet
10 H. Burt Finger licking Good
11 H. Burt The Kentucky Fried Rat
12 H. Burt Concrete Convertible
13 J. Burt Bloody Mary
14 T. Burt The Pygmy
15 D. Burt The Hanging Lady
16 D. Burt Fu-Fu
17 Skidmore Old Greg
18 J. lilies Old Greg
19 Skidmore The Haunted Swings
20 Murillo Titus
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Cover Essay
Urban Legends and Legends
Urban legends are something that I have always thought were fascinating. I remember
back to when I was a young kid and I heard stories about alligators in the sewers pipes in pop
culture, and my older sister tried to explain to me the story of the nunnery, and other stuff that
was similar to that. I did not know it at the time, but they were all examples of urban legends
and legends and I found most of them to be hilarious and thought provoking stories. I don't
know what it is about urban legends and just legends in general, but they just draw my
attention and make me wonder as I am sure they do with most people, because some of them
really make you wonder if they are actually true. I remember back to the first couple days of
my Folklore class and an assignment that we did. On the assignment was a section for urban
legends, and I remember it made me become even more interested in them and ultimately
made me choose to research and do a project that focused on urban legends and legends.
According to Google an urban legend is a humorous or horrific story or a piece of
information circulated as though true, especially one purporting to involve someone vaguely
related or known to the teller. Urban legends are grounded in truth even if it is just a little bit
and they are typically heard about from a friend of a friend. Almost all the stories I heard
people tell me or that I read about myself I wanted to believe were true. That last statement
reminds me of something my dad told me once concerning Forrest Gump, it was something to
this effect "When I first saw Forrest Gump I wanted to believe that he was a real person, but
then your mother told me he was a fictional character and it ruined the whole thing for me."
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Even though they may not be true and are only "legend," I still enjoyed learning more about
them, and finding out what they were really all about.
Heather Whipps hit it on the head when she stated, "urban legends aren't easily
verifiable, by nature. Usually passed on by word of mouth or-more commonly today-in email
form, they often invoke the famous "it happened to friend of a friend" (or FOAF) clause that
makes finding the original source of the story virtually impossible. (Whipps). Not knowing if
the story is actually true or not is quite possibly one of the reasons that urban legends are so
captivating and intriguing to people. I know that personally for me just thinking about these
kinds of stories gives me kind of an eerie feeling. An example of this would be one of the
interviews that I conducted with my friend Jayden Skidmore. According to the story an angry
man ended up killing his wife, her secret lover, and five kids who the man though were his but
they actually weren't, he then proceeded to kill himself. This story may not be true, but it
definitely could have happened but no one really knows.
Another characteristic of urban legends and legends is that over time the stories
become larger than life. A made up example of this that I just thought of would be like
someone finding a fingernail in their soup at a restaurant, but as the story goes along and gets
retold that fingernail turns into a finger. They just evolve naturally overtime to become this
way. Tom Harris a writer for How Stuff Works had this to say about urban legends, "The most
remarkable thing about urban legends is that so many people believe them and pass them on."
(Harris). Because if you think about it most of these stories are passed along by word of mouth
so basically it is just like a giant game of telephone when you are dealing with these stories,
over time when different people tell the story they add their own creativity to the story and it
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wouldn't be too big of a leap to jump from finding a fingernail to finding a full-fledged finger in
the soup.
One thing that all legends have in common is a grain of truth. It could range from an
incredibly small detail, or the whole story could be almost entirely true. It just differs from
story to story. Another thing that makes them all sound possible is the story details that are
used. For example a speCific location, a speCific time, names, dates, you name it. If it speCifies
any part of the story it adds to the believability. Another common characteristic of these types
of legends is the inclusion of some type of moral. Elissa Michele Zachar put it very well when
she said, "put a little thought into the story and it becomes plain that some are social warnings,
morality principles, designed to keep us from doing things that society says are sinful and
therefore dangerous, and reminding us to conform to society's norms." (Zachar). An example
of this is the moral that "The Hook," (a very popular and well known urban legend) teaches
young teenagers. The moral of liThe Hook," tries to warn teens to avoid being alone in the
middle of nowhere and by yourself with a member of the opposite sex because who knows
there could be some crazy killers out there.
To be honest these types of stories really interest me and make me want to read more
of them. Sure some of the stories are a little farfetched, but half of the fun of urban legends is
speculating the truthfulness and possibility of them. Another reason I enjoy urban legends and
legends is that you can try to see how the stories may have become exaggerated and larger
than life over time. Most urban legends include a moral of some sort, so if you get no
enjoyment out of the story you still get a pretty good moral that can actually be pretty
beneficial and protect you from problems in real life.
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Works Cited
Harris, Tom. "How Urban Legends Work." How Stuff Works: Sources of Urban Legends. How
Stuff Works. May 16, 2001. Web. November 9, 2014.
Whipps, Heather. "Urban Legends: How They Start and Why They Persist." Live Science: Urban
Legends Debunked. Live Science Magazine. August 27, 2006. Web. November 9, 2014
Zachar, Elissa Michele. "Urban Legend: Modern Morality Tales." The Epoch Times: Urban
Legends. The Epoch Times. July 18, 2010. Web. November 9, 2014.
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Autobiographical Sketch
My name is Tanner Burt. I am seventeen years old and a senior at Mountain Crest High School in
Hyrum, Utah. I was born in logan at the hospital and have lived in neighboring River Heights my whole
life. I have two sisters and no brothers. My dad is an independent insurance agent and also in the Army
National Guard. My mom is also an insurance agent and works with my dad in their logan office, she
runs the office when my dad is off with the army. My family and I all love the outdoors and are all pretty
hardcore cyclists. My family is LOS and that's pretty cool. My family doesn't really spend much time
telling each other scary or funky stories, but when they do they tend to be pretty epic and awesome.
have always enjoyed listening to others tell me stories that are weird and unusual. It doesn't matter
who is telling the story, if it's a good enough story I will listen to anyone. I typically hear my favorite
types of stories when I go on campouts with my friends and family or when I am travelling with my
extended family and we are just trying to kill time on a long car ride or are really bored. The weird
stories I hear then get told to all of my friends whenever we hang out or go do something because I
almost always feel the need to tell them about the latest gross/interesting story that I've heard about.
And recently since my involvement in a Folklore class at school my friends and I have begun to go out
and visit some of the sites and places where some of the stories we have heard about happened.
Because of my recent fascination with legends and urban legends I've decided to collect stories from
some of my friends and family .
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List of Informants
J. Zilles- Jake Zilles is 18 years old and a high school senior at Mountain Crest, the same school that I go
to. He lives in Wellsville, Utah and has lived in Cache Valley his whole life and we have been best friends
since before first grade. Jake is interested in outdoor activities like hiking and golfing. He is interested in
weird and scary stories like I am. Items: 1, 18.
J. Skidmore- Jayden Skidmore is 18 years old and a high school senior at Mountain Crest, the same
school that I go to. He has lived in Wellsville his whole life. Jayden is on the high school cross country
team and really likes to run and stay active in the great outdoors. He took this class last year and
learned all about these kind of stories. Jayden loves weird legends. Items: 2,17,19.
T. Zilles- Tanner Zilles is 16 years old and is a high school junior at Mountain Crest, the same school that I
go to. He lives in Wellsville, Utah and he is brothers with Jake Zilles one of the other people that I
interviewed. Tanner loves anything and everything that has to do with the great outdoors. He is an avid
hunter and enjoys camping and hiking. Tanner is interested in urban legends and the weirder they are
the more he enjoys them. Items: 3, 4.
H. Burt- Heather Burt is my mother and is 47 years old. She lives in River Heights, but was born and
grew up in the Provo area. She is an insurance agent and works with my father who is also an insurance
agent in their logan City office. My mom loves to stay active and enjoys activities like running and
biking. Items: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
J. Burt- Jessica Burt is my older sister she is 20 years old. She lives in River Heights in my parent's house
and is a student at USU in her second year of school up there. She also works in my parent's insurance
office. My sister likes to ride road bikes and sing and likes to be actively moving or involved in
something whenever she can. Items: 13
T. Burt- Teressa Burt is my younger sister and is 12 years old. She is a student at Spring Creek Middle
School in Providence, Utah. Obviously my little sister also lives in River Heights, Utah with the rest of my
family. She enjoys riding horses and loves to hang out with her friends whenever she can. She likes to
hear and listen to stories that her friends tell her. Items: 14.
D. Burt- Darcy Burt is my father, he is 49 years old. My dad is an insurance agent and owns his own
business which is in logan City. He is also a member of the Army National Guard and has been for over
twenty years, he is a lieutenant colonel. He went to USU and majored in H.R. and Business, he
graduated in 1992. He lives in River Heights with the rest of my family. He likes to tell stories about
actual events that he has read about or experienced. Items: 15, 16.
A. Murillo- Alex Murillo is 18 years old and is a high school senior at Mountain Crest, the same school
that I go to. He is a member of the student government on the EXEC councilor something like that and
tells some pretty cool stories. Items: 20 .
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Item 1
Bad Wine
Jake Zilles
Wellsville, Utah
October 27,2014
Context: Jake and I were hanging out at his house with his other brother Tanner and our friend Jayden
who both let me interview them as well. We were all inside just hanging out and I asked them if they
knew any urban legends, so they thought about it for a while and then Jake told me this one. This is a
story that you could pretty much tell to anyone because it's a little bit gross and scary, but not to gross
and scary. It's just right.
Text: Ok so this is a story I heard and it's called bad wine. So there were these Algerian wine makers and
they would import the wine to Paris, a very wine consuming country, and so it the story goes that they
have a slow draining tank of wine that would drain into bottles that they would distribute to the city and
stuff, and but when they got to the bottom of the tank, and it was too late to recover the bottles at this
point. They found a dead a dead Algerian in the bottom of the tank with a knife in his back. And the
reason why it stopped pumping wine is because one of his boots had came off and it had clogged a
valve. And so that's what made them check inside. And so yeah they found a dead Algerian in the
bottom of a draining tank.
Texture: Jake told me that he had heard this story from a relative about a year ago when they were on a
vacation together. He told me that they were just telling each other stories and this one stood out to
him for some reason, but he didn't know why. He thought that it was a pretty cool story but doubted it
was true.
Neither of us believed it to be a true story, but then again neither of us really knows a whole lot about
the cutthroat world of wine making, and anything is possible. We both felt that someone would have
probably noticed the dead worker in the wine and notified someone. It would be incredibly unlikely that
a dead body would end up in a tank full of wine, how would he fit through the opening? It just doesn't
add up .
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Item 2
Frozen Disney/Disney on Ice
Jayden Skidmore
Wellsville, Utah
October 27,2014
Context: Jayden and I were at our friend Jakes house one day just hanging out with Jake and his brother
Tanner playing the Xbox and having a pretty awesome time. We went to gets some food from the
kitchen when I asked them all to tell me some urban legends or just legends that they had heard over
the years. Jayden and his family are huge fans of Disney so this was the perfect story for Jayden to tell
me.
Text: So this urban legend is a pretty popular story its title is frozen Disney. Uh the legend goes that urn
since Disney was a very urn a very smart human being and he had a lot of duh technological advances
and stuff. Urn that he had arranged himself to be frozen after he died instead of buried. Urn and that
way he's just waiting for the a, a reanimation pretty much and uh. Urn so yeah it pretty much got
started because uh he was just that kind of guy I guess and uh the Disney company kept his life pretty
secret and pretty personal and it you know they didn't arrange, nobody knew anything about his death
really because they kept that pretty secret and personal. So it's pretty easy to keep the legend going
and just became pretty big.
Texture: Jayden told me he heard this legend once when he was in Disneyland on vacation from one of
the workers while they were waiting in line to go on a ride. He told me that he didn't really believe it
was true, even though he really wanted it to be true.
This story definitely makes you wonder because not a lot was known about Walt Disney and maybe he
was weird enough to freeze himself for the future. I guess we will just have to wait and find out in the
future. If it was a true story and Walt Disney was revived in the future that would be pretty scary.
Jayden and I thought about it though and we didn't really think it was true. We hope that it is though
just because it would be strangely cool.
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Item 3
The Nunnery
Tanner Zilles
Wellsville, Utah
October 27,2014
Context: This is the second story that I got from Tanner Zilles on the same day. He told it to me while
we were hanging out at his house with his brother Jake and our other friend Jayden. We were just
sitting on a couch eating some snacks not really doing anything and he just asked if a story about the
nunnery up logan Canyon would work for my project. I didn't see any reason why it wouldn't work so I
let him tell me the story.
Text: The nunnery. Umm dude it is so cool. Um ok so there's that nunnery. Is that up logan Canyon?
Up logan Canyon, and the legend about that is, I heard this from my dad his buddy that's a cop used to
go and take up meat and they would pay him for it. So he's in there taking meat to them one day and he
would just they'd have him just go set it in the basement or whatever. Yeah and just like keep it going
man. But so when he went down in the basement one day and there was always this chest that was
locked but it was unlocked this time so he opened it and it had like a bunch of baby skulls in it and little
humans and apparently they killed babies because they'd like get pregnant or whatever and they
couldn't have babies so they'd just kill them. And that's the legend of the nunnery.
Texture: So like Tanner said in the interview he heard this story from his dad who heard it from one of
his buddies. So basically from the start I found this story hard to believe because it had been spread
from a friend of a friend to me. Tanner didn't really believe it either, he just thought that it made for a
good story which it does.
Tanner and I both know that the Catholic Church owned the property but we just couldn't picture nuns,
who are supposed to be nice good people killing poor innocent babies. It just kind of goes against
everything you kind of think and know about nuns. It definitely makes you wonder though and it also
makes you want to go see where it supposedly happened.
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Item 4
The Fart in the Dark
Tanner Zilles
Wellsville, Utah
October 27, 2014
Context: Tanner and I were just hanging out at his house with his brother Jake and our other friend
Jayden who both told stories as well. We were all inside gaming it up on the Xbox having a pretty great
time. I asked them if they had any stories and got this one from Tanner. It is definitely not the type of
story you would want to tell with girls around, however I find this story fitting because Tanner really
knows how to let them fly and it was dark. Also Tanner was not at all baked or high during the recording
he was just taking some creative liberty and being an idiot.
Text: Ummm so this is the story of a plain Jane girl in school who has never been out on a date, no
boyfriend. Yeah so she didn't have a boyfriend. So one day the captain of the football team asked her
to go to the big dance, you know like prom, and so she ran home overwhelmed. She had her hair done,
she had a new dress, nails manicured, and told her parents on how to act. She was like "be cool dad no
cleaning your shotgun." In the process of getting ready the chili she had for lunch starts to make itself
known getting all rumbley in her stomach. Near seven o'clock the time that he's going to be there the
gas was getting unbearable. She feels about to bust uh she uh you know she's going to burst dude she's
going to lay one out. But just before she can get relieved the door bell rang. So she let him in and
introduced him to her family, dad wasn't cleaning the shotgun super cool, no one was baked um but by
this time she can hardly talk and is breathy she had to fart like really bad she's like "hahaha I'm not
going to toot myself haha," so she begins plotting how she's going to get like rid of it before she blows it.
You know gonna blow gonna blow an 0 ring or something. So she planned that when he opens the door
to let her in she blows on his way around the car, rolls the window down, fans it out, and everything will
be fine. So she didn't blow her 0 ring, didn't want to hurt herself there. He opened the door for her
closes it and starts to walk around. She lets it out and it sounds like a howitzer, the car vibrates the
license falls off, she rolls the window down fans it out and is all cool and composed when he gets in. He
smiles and says "oh I would like you to meet Ruth and Bob who are sitting in the back seat."
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Texture: Tanner actually had heard this story from me about a month before the interview when I was
learning about urban legends in my folklore class and I shared it with him one day at school. He found it
to be pretty funny and thought that it would be a good one to tell me. It's definitely a good urban
legend and always makes me laugh a little bit.
We both realized that it's a pretty farfetched story and probably didn't actually happen, but it still makes
for a dang good story and who knows maybe it actually did happen to some poor girl who hasn't been
on a date since. I hope to someday go on a date with a girl that this happens to just because I think that would
be freaking hilarious.
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ItemS
The Vanishing Hitchhiker
Heather Burt
River Heights, Utah
November 7, 2014
Context: So one night when my mom got home from work I just kind of cornered her and got her to tell
me all of the urban legends or legends that she had ever heard from other people or read about online
or in books. After quite a bit of prodding I finally got her to tell me them and also got her to remember
or realize that some of the stories that she had heard about over the years were actually urban legends.
Basically my whole family was in and out of the room where we were doing the interviews so sometimes
during the recordings there is quite a bit of background noise.
Text: This is the story of the vanishing hitchhiker. It was told to me by my mom's mom, my grandma a
long time ago she's dead now. So a couple miles outside of Logan there is a busy road and it's
intersected by another busy road. It's a really dangerous intersection and there's talk of building a
pedestrian overpass over it. But however there's no plans, the plans only exist on paper so. Doctor Ball
was driving home from a country club dance late one Saturday when he slowed down at the intersection
and was surprised to see a beautiful young girl dressed in a beautiful ball gown. You know waving for
him to pull over he put on his brakes and motioned for her to get in the backseat and he asked her what
she was doing out here all alone at this time of night at that time of night. And she said oh it's too long
of a story to tell you, but please if you'll take me to 718 East 200 South in Logan I can tell you the whole
story. The doctor put the car in motion and he drove quickly to the address she had given him. When
he pulled up at the house it was all dark and he turned around and behind him in the seat there was
nobody there. "What the heck he said./I The girl was gone he went up and rang the doorbell and he
knocked on the door of the house that was all dark. He did that for about five minutes and finally
someone answered the door. This little gray haired man answered the door. And says "I can't tell you
what an amazing thing has happened a young girl gave me this address a little while, a while a, a little
ways away and I drove her here and./I "Yep I know," says the old man "this has happened several other
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Saturday evenings this past month. That young girl sir was my daughter and she was killed in an
automobile accident at that very intersection where you saw her almost two years ago."
Texture: My mother said that when her grandma told her this story it really freaked her out and she was
scared of that road for a while. But looking back on it now my mom just kind of laughs because she
realizes that there is no way that it could be a true story. Sure someone may have died there, but
there's no way that there is like a ghost haunting that stretch of road.
I asked my mom why her grandma told her this story and she wasn't sure, so I kind of suspect that she
may have told my mom this story to scare her about that intersection or just busy roads in general. I
don't believe that the story is true either I really think that it was intended to scare younger kids away
from streets.
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Item 6
The Choking Doberman
Heather Burt
River Heights, Utah
November 7, 2014
Context: So one night when my mom got home from work I just kind of cornered her and got her to tell
me all of the urban legends or legends that she had ever heard from other people or read about online
or in books. After quite a bit of prodding I finally got her to tell me them and also got her to remember
or realize that some of the stories that she had heard about over the years were actually urban legends.
This is the second story that I got her to tell me. Basically my whole family was in and out of the room
where we were doing the interviews so sometimes during the recordings there is quite a bit of
background noise.
Text: Heard a story about this woman in las Vegas. She came home from work and her Doberman was
gasping for breath laying on the ground. She put the dog in the car and ran to the vet and the vet said
that he was going to have to perform a tracheotomy and put tubes in his throat so he could breath. He
told her to go home and um he would call her and call her and let her know. So she gets home and the
phone is just ringing off the hook when she gets home. And she answers it and it's the vet and he's
telling her get out of the house go to the neighbors and call the police. So it seems that when the vet
did that operation on the dog he found um three fingers lodged in the dog's throat. Um and then when
the police came they found an intruder unconscious lying in the closet without his fingers.
Texture: My mom said that she heard this story from a friend of hers when they were going to school
together. My mom and her friend were just telling each other stories one day in class and this was one
of them. They both thought that it was a little bit of a scary/chilling story. My mom's friend heard it
from like a friend of a friend.
My mom and I wondered if this could have actually been a true story, because it sounds like something
that could totally happen. An attack dog doing his job bites ends up biting off the fingers of an intruder.
It could totally happen but nobody really knows if it did happen and we probably never will know if it
was a true story.
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Item 7
The Hook
Heather Burt
River Heights, Utah
November 7, 2014
Context: So one night when my mom got home from work I just kind of cornered her and got her to tell
me all of the urban legends or legends that she had ever heard from other people or read about online
or in books. After quite a bit of prodding I finally got her to tell me them and also got her to remember
or realize that some of the stories that she had heard about over the years were actually urban legends.
This is the third story that I got her to tell me. Basically my whole family was in and out of the room
where we were doing the interviews so sometimes during the recordings there is quite a bit of
background noise.
Text: I heard this story about a girl from Scipio and her boyfriend and they were out and they were
parked on a country road. And the girl was just nervous and she kept saying "oh I just feel nervous I'm
anxious." And unbeknownst to them there was a report about an escaped criminal in the area and he
was supposedly dangerous and had murdered some people. And they called him the hook because one
of his hands was missing and he wore a hook in place of it. Well the girl just kept saying that she was
nervous and wanted to go home and the boy he just got mad, turned on the car, stomped on the gas,
roared out of there. When they got to the girls house he got out and went around to the door and when
he got to her door there was a hook hanging on the door handle.
Texture: My mom told me that she heard this story from one of her brothers at a family reunion that we
went to a few years ago. My uncle told it to her when they were just sitting around the campfire. They
were both telling each other stories and having a good time. She doesn't remember why this one stuck
out to her, but this is the only one that she remembered the whole story to not just bits and pieces like
she did with the others.
My mom and I wondered if this could have been a true story, we didn't think about it too long before we
came up with the verdict that it was totally just made up and there was no way it was true. It definitely
would be a good story to tell to a couple to try and scare them to avoid old roads that no one drives
down. It would also be pretty cool to sneak up on some people who were parked on some road and
pretend to be the hook .
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Item 8
What's That Smell
Heather Burt
River Heights, Utah
November 7, 2014
Context: So one night when my mom got home from work I just kind of cornered her and got her to tell
me all of the urban legends or legends that she had ever heard from other people or read about online
or in books. After quite a bit of prodding I finally got her to tell me them and also got her to remember
or realize that some of the stories that she had heard about over the years were actually urban legends.
This is the fourth story that I got her to tell me. Basically my whole family was in and out of the room
where we were doing the interviews so sometimes during the recordings there is quite a bit of
background noise.
Text: I heard this story about this woman in California she had a really nice house and her husband was
cheating on her. Well she wanted to have the house, he was trying, he was, they're getting a divorce
and urn they're, they're ending up the house the people the people are, the husband and his girlfriend
our ending up with the house. So before the lady moves out she stuffs anchovies and shrimp and just
yucky fish in the curtain rods so that it smells up the house. So the guy and his new little urn bride new
little girlfriend they're living in the house and loving it and then the house starts to just smell, just to
wreak, and smell bad and they can't figure it out. So they had the carpets cleaned, they get it all cleaned
and they can't figure out where the smell is coming from so finally they end up selling the house, or
selling the house to the guys ex wife for way cheap and urn the funny, the best part is they end up taking
the curtain rods with them to the new house.
Texture: My mom didn't really remember where she heard this story from. She thought that maybe she
had read it online a few years ago or something like that. She wasn't sure if it was a true story but she
thought that it was really funny, and thought that if it was true that the woman who stuffed the rods
with fish was pretty clever.
We wondered if it could have been true and we thought that it could have happened but we just didn't
know for sure. We both thought that this story was pretty hilarious though and we knew that we
wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of it either. If it did nothing else this story definitely gave me
a good idea for a nasty prank to try out sometime in the future.
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Item 9
The Tapeworm Diet
Heather Burt
River Heights, Utah
November 7,2014
Context: So one night when my mom got home from work I just kind of cornered her and got her to tell
me all of the urban legends or legends that she had ever heard from other people or read about online
or in books. After quite a bit of prodding I finally got her to tell me them and also got her to remember
or realize that some of the stories that she had heard about over the years were actually urban legends.
This is the fifth story that I got her to tell me. Basically my whole family was in and out of the room
where we were doing the interviews so sometimes during the recordings there is quite a bit of
background noise.
Text: So the story goes that there was this woman who was overweight and she tried to lose weight by
using all these different diet methods and she couldn't lose any weight not fast enough and. Somebody
told her that she should try this special diet from Europe. It was a pill you take this pill and the pill once
it got um with the liquid in her body with the water from her body it dissolved them around the pill.
• And inside the pill was a tapeworm that was revitalized. So she took that and it got lodged into her
intestines, and she was really excited because she stopped, started losing weight really fast. But she
kept losing losing losing weight, and before she know it she was dead.
Texture: This is a story that my mom said she heard at the gym she goes to. Some girl was talking to
her about weird diets and then she remembered this weird story that she had heard about. She said
that she had read about it online or something. They had a discussion about it and in the end decided
that you would have to be pretty crazy to try this diet and that it probably wouldn't work anyways.
My mom and I both thought about this story for a little while and found it pretty hard to believe in even
a little bit. It is hard to believe because it just doesn't seem like it could happen at all, no one would be
dumb enough to try and eat a tapeworm those things are bad news. Who would even be stupid enough
to try it? You would have to be insane I think, but then again there are some messed up people in the
world who will try anything ifthey think it will help them.
•
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Item 10
Finger Licking Good
Heather Burt
River Heights, Utah
November 7,2014
Context: So one night when my mom got home from work I just kind of cornered her and got her to tell
me all of the urban legends or legends that she had ever heard from other people or read about online
or in books. After quite a bit of prodding I finally got her to tell me them and also got her to remember
or realize that some of the stories that she had heard about over the years were actually urban legends.
This is the sixth story that I got her to tell me. Basically my whole family was in and out of the room
where we were doing the interviews so sometimes during the recordings there is quite a bit of
background noise.
Text: Ok there's this story about this woman who went to Wendy's and got some chili, because she
really liked there chili. She thought that it was really good. So she's in the drive through, and then she
leaves, and then she starts eating it. And she gets down to the bottom and there's this big chunk of
something. She thinks it's either a bean or hamburger or something. And she goes and she's looking at
it a little closer and she realizes Itoh my gosh this isn't, this isn't a bean this isn't a hamburger." There
was a fingernail on it. It was some body's finger that was inside her Wendy's chili. She pulls over to the
side of the road makes herself throw up and never eats at Wendy's again.
Texture: This is a story that my mom read on line a while ago on like the MSN homepage or something.
She thought that it was a little bit of a disturbing story, but at the same time found it to be slightly
funny. The story actually made her never want to eat at a fast food restaurant again because it kind of
grossed her out just to think about someone's finger showing up in her food.
We both speculated on the truthfulness of the story and found it kind of hard to believe.
We just didn't think that a finger would be able to end up in the chili without somebody noticing it and
we were pretty sure that someone would report that they had sliced their finger off into the chili if it
actually happened. It would just be really gross if actually happened and would probably have caused
some pretty big problems for Wendy's.
•
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•
Item 11
The Kentucky Fried Rat
Heather Burt
River Heights, Utah
November 7,2014
Context: So one night when my mom got home from work I just kind of cornered her and got her to tell
me all of the urban legends or legends that she had ever heard from other people or read about online
or in books. After quite a bit of prodding I finally got her to tell me them and also got her to remember
or realize that some of the stories that she had heard about over the years were actually urban legends.
This is the seventh story that I got her to tell me. Basically my whole family was in and out of the room
where we were doing the interviews so sometimes during the recordings there is quite a bit of
background noise.
Text: So there is this story about this old lady who really likes to eat at Kentucky Fried Chicken, KFC. So
one day she was eating along with what she had ordered, this original crispy chicken. She noticed, she
was looking at the piece of meat and she noticed that there were some teeth in the meat. So she kind
of skinned it off a little bit and she saw that she was eating a rat. Well the woman had a heart attack
and died and then her relatives sued Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Texture: My mom said that she read this in a magazine or a newspaper one day and it made her a little
bit queasy. She thought that it was a disgusting story and hoped that it was not actually true and didn't
even want to believe that it could have been true. She was really grossed out she said.
We had a little discussion about it and decided that to be safe we should probably never eat at fast food
restaurants again, specifically KFC. I thought about it and it probably wouldn't be too hard for a rat to
get into the chicken at a crappy KFC where they weren't very careful, and it would be pretty easy for it
to go unseen by the people working there. This story is pretty gross.
•
•
•
Item 12
Concrete Convertible
Heather Burt
River Heights, Utah
November 7, 2014
Context: So one night when my mom got home from work I just kind of cornered her and got her to tell
me all of the urban legends or legends that she had ever heard from other people or read about online
or in books. After quite a bit of prodding I finally got her to tell me them and also got her to remember
or realize that some of the stories that she had heard about over the years were actually urban legends.
This is the eighth story that I got her to tell me. Basically my whole family was in and out of the room
where we were doing the interviews so sometimes during the recordings there is quite a bit of
background noise.
Text: So there's this story of this woman whose husband works for a cement company. She saves for a
long, years and years and and saves up enough money to buy him his favorite dream car which is a
mustang convertible. So the car is at their house with the with the owner of the car, and he and and the
wife are negotiating a price when the husband comes home in, driving the cement mixer. He sees the
flashy car and the wife talking to a strange man and he dumps the load of the cement inside the car.
Texture: My mom said that she read this story online a while back but she didn't remember where. She
laughed about the story because the husband was an idiot and just assumed that his wife was having an
affair and that the car belonged to the man who was in with his wife, when really it was about to be his.
She thought about it for a while and considered that it could have possibly happened.
Both of us speculated if this story could have been a true story, but kind of found it hard to believe. We
didn't think that the man would be able to destroy his favorite type of car, and also that his wife and the
previous owner would have probably been able to stop him. Unless his wife was really good at hiding
money the husband probably already knew about the car fund as well. This story is pretty humorous
and now if I ever see a car full of concrete in someone's driveway I will know what has happened.
•
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•
Item 13
Bloody Mary
Jessica Burt
River Heights, Utah
November 7,2014
Context: So I was interviewing my mom a whole bunch of times at the kitchen table and then my sister
walked in and said she had a legend that she could tell me. It was really funny because she told me the
story in just a few seconds because she was getting ready to go on a date and had to hurry and tell me
the story before she left. My whole family was in the room listening when my sister told the story.
Text: So this one time I heard that if you went in a bathroom and you spun around three times and said
Bloody Mary each time, she would appear to you and eat your soul.
Texture: So my sister quickly told me that she had heard this story while at a girls camp one year and
that she heard it while they were sitting around a campfire and that later some of them went and tried
it out. Unfortunately it didn't work and the story isn't true. My sister didn't believe it anyways.
This story is really old and there are a lot of different theories on where it started. No one really knows
and no one can really say that it is true because no one has died from it yet. I honestly don't believe it,
but it would be a little bit creepy to go and try it out in a dark, deserted, scary looking bathroom.
•
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Item 14
The Pygmy
Teressa Burt
River Heights, Utah
November 7,2014
Context: So on the same night that I got the story from my sister Jessica and all of the other stories from
my mom, my little sister Teressa also came up to the table where the interviews were taking place and
told me this bizarre story that she had heard from one of her friends one day at school. This story is
pretty weird and I found it a little strange that my little sister knew this weird gruesome story.
Text: Ok so there once there was once rumors about a pygmy that lived in Providence Canyon or Logan
Canyon and so, but everyone thought that they were just rumors. And one night a man and his
girlfriend go up into the canyon on a date and so they get out and they're in their tent and the man
forgets something in his car. So he goes and gets something from his car and then she hears in the tent a
bloodcurdling scream. So the man comes back and tells her to get out of the tent and go to the car. They
run to the car and they get in the car. They see something running after them and the guys opens the
door and is yelling out who is that, who is that. The pygmy runs after them. The man runs after them the
supposedly creature runs after them and while he's trying to close the door and the pygmy's arm gets
stuck in the door. The man drives off and while he's trying to get the pygmy off he opens the door and
tries to get it off. The pygmy jumps in the car and attacks the man pulling him out ofthe car. The woman
comes over into the driver's seat and starts driving away. The next day the police come up the canyon to
see what was going on they find a pool of blood and a severed head.
Texture: My sister told me that she had heard this story from her friend at school a few months earlier
on their way to a class after lunch or something. They both thought that it was a really gross story and
never wanted to go up Providence Canyon. My sister's friend had heard it from another friend who
swore it was true, but they're in like seventh grade and like to believe in everything.
Both of us don't believe this story and find it hard to believe that anyone could. It doesn't seem
possible, in fact it seems about as probable as Bigfoot or the
Loch Ness Monster. It makes for a pretty gruesome story though.
•
•
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Item 15
The Hanging Lady
Darcy Burt
River Heights, Utah
November 8, 2014
Context: So my dad and I were hanging out at home on Saturday and it was just after lunch and I was
taking a break from working on this assignment. I took the chance to ask him if he knew any good
stories or if he had heard any cool ones growing up. After I kind of explained to him what kind of a story
I was looking for he summarized this one and asked if it would work. I told him it would work so we
recorded it and here it is.
Text: So I know this place that is east of Scipio it's called Cal's its and old farm house out in some old
fields. There's nobody that's lived there for years and it's a haunted house. And there's a legend that
there is a lady hanging in there from a rope. And on Halloween night that it is haunted, so we went out
as a young kids and went out there and it truly was haunted, and we saw the lady hanging in the rafters
still from the rope on a Halloween eve.
Texture: My dad told me that growing up he heard about this story from one of his friends who lived in
Scipio at school one day or on a bus ride home. And they actually like my dad said in the interview went
out to this old farmhouse on Halloween and saw that the owners ofthe old building had set up a
skeleton in the rafters. He wasn't quite sure if it was a true story, he was never able to find out.
Both of us considered the possibility of this story. We definitely thought that it could have happened,
but we didn't believe that it had. It seems like in every community or area there are a few stories about
people committing suicide, this story reminded me of the story of the haunted swings in the Mt. Sterling
Area .
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•
Item 16
Fu-Fu
Darcy Burt
River Heights, Utah
November, 8 2014
Context: So this is the second story that I collected from my dad and he gave it to me immediately after
he gave me the first story. I had never heard any stories like this one from my dad, and I don't think my
mom had either so she was a little bit surprised to hear my dad tell this story. He claimed that he had
only heard the story and never went there but I don't know.
Text: I know another place that is just north of Scipio it's called Fu-Fu and there's a bunch of
cottonwood trees and it's a place where you can go out and where the young people go out and make
out and you jump in the ditch underneath the cottonwood trees and you kiss your first true love at Fu-
Fu in Scipio. It's an urban legend.
Texture: My dad said that he heard about this story from his friend who lived in Scipio, back when they
were in high school. They were on the bus home one day after school and my dad's friend was telling
him all about this cool place. They both wanted to go and see if it was a real place, but I was told that
they never went there instead they just heard stories about it .
Both of us wondered if it was a real place and we both thought that it probably was a real place, it's
really not that hard of a story to believe, because what else are a bunch of bored teenagers going to do
in a small farm community? Someday I hope to go and visit this legendary site and see if it's actually real
and find out what it's all about .
•
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•
Item 17
Old Greg
Jayden Skidmore
Mt. Sterling, Utah
November 8, 2014
Context: Jayden (who I had already interviewed and gotten a story from before) and I were hanging with
about ten other people at our friend Miranda's house in her hot tub on a Saturday night and I was really
in need of some stories so I asked everyone if they had any and only a few were willing to share. As
always I knew Jayden would be willing to help me out and he didn't let me down and gave me a couple
pretty sweet stories. He may have been inspired to tell me this story because we were in a hot tub but I
don't really know. There is a lot of background noise from the other people that were there and some
splashing from the hot tub on the recording.
Text: So there's this legend of, in, it happens in England on this lake and it's Black lake of Old Greg. And
on a full moon if you happen to be fishing there you better watch out. Because he will come and get
you and he'll take you to his lair and if you don't do what he wants he'll slaughter you.
Texture: Jayden told me that he heard about this story from our good friend Tanner Zilles, who had seen
some terrible video about Old Greg and had then, told Jayden all about it, because that's what he does.
Jayden and Tanner thought that it was super weird and slightly entertaining but they didn't believe in it
one bit because it was just too bizarre of a story.
Both of us just laughed when Jayden finished the story, because it was a weird story and it was a little
bit sketchy. We didn't think that it was at all probable that someone would be able to live in a lake and
pop up and snatch people to take back to his cave underwater, but we did think that it made for a pretty
dang good story.
•
•
•
Item 18
Old Greg
Jake Zilles
Mt. Sterling, Utah
November 8, 2014
Context: Jake and I were both out at our friend Miranda's house one Saturday night and we were
hanging out with about ten other people including Jayden Skidmore and Alex Murillo who I also got
some stories from that night. So we were sitting in the hot tub and I asked people if they had any good
stories that they could share with me and this is the one that Jake gave me. He had heard Jayden give
his story about Old Greg and wanted to tell me his version of the story. We are sitting in a hot tub with
a bunch of other people so there is quite a bit of background noise and a lot of splashing.
Text: So there's this legend about this old man who's out on the lake fishing with his wife over in
England, this is Black Lake. He's Fishing on the lake with his wife, he caught a big fish and got yanked in
never came back up. Now the rumor is that if you go fishing on a full moon by yourself you catch a big
fish and you'll pull up Old Greg and then he'll drag you down to your lair and he'll kill you.
Texture: Jake said that he heard about this story from his little brother Tanner a few weeks ago after he
had seen or read about him online. Jake and Tanner both found the story of Old Greg to be really scary,
but at the same time somewhat humorous. They laughed at the story, but did not even consider it to be
a possibility. They both thought that this was an incredibly good story and bring it up every chance that
they get.
Both of us just laughed at this story and didn't think that there was any way that it could have been a
true story or actually happened. The story in no way seems probable or possible but it is a pretty
entertaining story. If I ever find myself on Black lake in England at night and there happens to be a full
moon out that night I'll know what to expect. I'll probably make sure that I am extra careful or just
paddle my boat back to shore as fast as I can if I see the slightest movement.
•
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Item 19
The Haunted Swings
Jayden Skidmore
Mt. Sterling, Utah
November, 8, 2014
Context: Jayden and I were hanging out at our friend Miranda's house with about ten other people one
Saturday night in the hot tub that's at her house. I had gone around and asked everyone if they had any
good stories being pretty annoying because I really needed them. Jayden came to my rescue and even
though he had already given me a story that night, he remembered that he had this story and asked if
he could tell it to me. I really liked that this story supposedly took place in Mt. Sterling not far from
where we were.
Text: Once upon a time there were the haunted swings. What happened and why they're haunted is
because, one day there was a man who built these swings for his children. So there were five children,
five swings. And one day this man comes home to his wife in you know with another man. So he's
furious and he finds out that none of the kids are his none of them. They're all this other mans. So he
kills the other guy he kills his wife and then he heads out to these swings and these poor children were
just swinging, all five of them and he kills every one of them and then he ties a rope to the center of the
swings and he hangs himself.
Texture: Jayden told me that he heard this story from his good friend Cody Zilles who just so happens to
be related to the people who own the property with the haunted swings on it and he will probably
someday inherit it and own it himself. Cody actually told Jayden this story when they were on a
campout at the haunted swings for a scout camp one night. Jayden and Cody don't believe the story,
but they didn't sleep very well that night.
Jayden and I wondered if there was any truth to this story and we found it really hard to believe. It
could have been possible, but it probably wasn't and Cody told Jayden that it was just a good story that
someone had made up. Even though it may just be a good scary story and isn't true, it makes you
wonder how the story was created or where it originated and if it may have actually been a true story in
another town or city.
•
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•
Item 20
Titus
Alex Murillo
Mt. Sterling, Utah
November 8, 2014
Context: So one Saturday night I was out at my friend Miranda's house with about ten other people. I
had gone there hoping to get a few stories from people and I ended up getting a few which was great.
One of the stories came from Alex Murillo, someone I don't really know and who I don't really talk to
but it was a really funny story I thought and I really liked it. So Alex told me the story while we were all
soaking in Miranda's hot tub, so throughout the whole recording there is quite a bit of background noise
and a little bit of splashing.
Text: So there they were two, two young high school boys, on a crawdad fishing trek in the ole Hyrum
Dam. And uh due to their inexperience they went out to shore, saw a line cast way out into the lake and
they wondered what this person could be trying to catch. So out of curiosity once again they pulled in
the line and a cage started to emerge from the water, and as they pulled it closer something started to
emerge from behind the cage. It was Titus the freshwater lobster of Hyrum Dam. Who, his, the claws
were as big as my fists and he looked so delicious and I tried to grab him but he swam away backwards
like crawdads do. So he's still out there.
Texture: Alex didn't really say, but this kind of sounded like a personal experience story to me. I don't
know if Alex actually saw a freshwater lobster named Titus in Hyrum Dam it would be pretty cool if he
did. This legend is one that I've never heard anything about so maybe it will be the next big legend for
the Cache Valley area. I'm sure that there are crawdads in Hyrum Dam so maybe one of them grew to
freakishly large size.
I don't think that this is actually a true story I find it hard to believe, but it makes for a really funny story
that makes people laugh and the way it was told just made it that much better. I think that the next
time I go out to Hyrum Dam I may have to go and see if I can verify this story by trying to catch Titus the
freshwater lobster of Hyrum dam .]]> Digitized by : Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library.]]> Digitized by: Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library.]]> Tanner Burt]]> legends (folk tales);]]> application/pdf;]]> 11361559 Bytes]]> eng]]> Text;]]> Logan Canyon (Utah); Cache County (Utah); United States;]]> 1990-1999; 20th century;]]>