Nicole PopeFollow

Date Collected

11-27-2017

Place item was collected

Logan, UT

Informant

Kay

Point of Discovery/Informant Bio

Kay is a friend of mine. She has lived in Logan, Utah her whole life with her family. She has an older brother and two younger sisters. Her family is Vietnamese American. Her father and his parents left Vietnam for the Philippines before flying to America. Her is also from Vietnam as well. Her grandparents lived with them for a number of years when she was younger and they helped raise her because her parents were busy with work. She is 19 years old.

Context

I interviewed Kay at my house. We sat on my bed with my computer in front of us so I can record for transcription later. We converse for a while before like we would do and I explain that I will be interviewing her. She sits back and hugs one of my stuffed animals while we talk. She tells me a bit about her family and how her grandparents raised her and her siblings when they were younger because her parents worked a lot. She tells me about how her younger sister wasn’t raised by her grandparents because they moved to Texas when she was in 8th grade. She then tells me a number of things that her grandmother used to tell her. The story was originally in Vietnamese but she didn’t know how to really retell it well in Vietnamese so she explained it and told me it’s meaning in English.

Text

[Kay]: Ok so this next story is basically an eerie type of ghost story which um my grandparents told me. a lot of things come from my grandparents because they're freakin cool [smiles] anyway um so we have a saying where if you ever see a ghost or a relative like especially like a dead relative as a ghost ever in your life that means that they are warning you or you're life is near end. it's just kind of creepy and the eery thing about it is that they will just look at you I don't know I think it's [pauses] I'm not sure if they look at you like they appear near the nighttime or daytime it just [pauses] my grandparents just say like if you ever see a ghost um [pauses] that they're warning you about something or your life is about to end and that's usually with dead relatives but if you see a stranger ghost ugh either they're warning you about something evil or you're going to die basically the same thing or they're like trying to haunt you or something like that. it's kind of interesting

[Me]: So if nothing's wrong you can't see ghosts?

[Kay]: Um. yea I don't know about that it's just they tell me that if you ever see a ghost then they're warning you about something ugh which is kinda creepy and I don't like ghosts [laughs]

Texture

She is a little hesitant as she speaks and a little awkward. She seems a little wary of the computer I use to record. Normally she is a little more laid back but is a little stiff during our conversation. She speaks in a very professional style interview. She becomes a little more relaxed the more she talks and even laughs a bit.

Course

Introduction to Folklore/English 2210

Instructor

Dr. Lynne S. McNeill

Semester and year

Fall 2017

Theme

G7: Appearances or Manifestations of Supernatural Beings or Revenants

EAD Number

1.1.2.4.20

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