Babysitting Spirit

Jess IvieFollow

Date Collected

11-2017

Place item was collected

Logan, Utah

Informant

RaeLee Yancey

Point of Discovery/Informant Bio

RaeLee is a 20 year old female, she grew up in Stanwood, Washington, moved to West Jordan, Utah her sophomore year of high school and now lives in Logan, Utah. She earned her high school diploma from Copper Hills high in West Jordan, an associates degree from Salt Lake Community College (which she earned during high school), and is currently working towards her bachelors in exercise science and international studies at Utah State University. She grew up in an LDS family. She is an extremely close friend of mine that I met my sophomore year of high school, and she was my roommate freshman year of college. She is a fun loving individual that comes off as quiet at first, but loves deep talks. She loves the outdoors, travelling, and music. When telling stories, she takes a little bit of time to warm up, and then becomes active.

Context

This story was told at an impromptu game night in the public lounge at my apartment around 9:40 pm. A mutual friend was visiting from Salt Lake, and we decided to have a game night to catch up. RaeLee, the visiting friend, and I were halfway through a game of phase 10 when we got bored and I asked the visiting friend about recent adventures, and he told us a ghost story. After that, a few supernatural stories were bounced around, including this one. It was pretty quiet, because it was late and there were only 3 of us in the room. The collection context and context of use are very similar, because the storytelling started naturally. It would normally be told between peers, or to someone that was old enough to go babysitting right before they went. The interruption near the end is from Tyler, the visiting friend.

Text

“One time I was babysitting this kid right? These two kids, they're super cute! But that night just felt really w r o n g? At least- for the half hour that it happened? But um, the little kid, uh… Isaac. He was like, staring at the blank wall like this. Like ‘that’s really scary’ [kids are creepy as hell dude] They are! I’ve seen a few things I think that, anyway, really scary, and I’m like (panting) and so I was like, praying like crazy anyway… we went upstairs again but...”

Texture

RaeLee seemed excited to tell this story, and told it with high energy and medium/high volume. She was pretty to the point, and didn’t draw it out at all, so it could be assumed that she didn’t intend to scare listeners, but to share with them in experiences where we shared mutual feels of terror. Because she had told a couple of other stories prior to this one, she was relaxed when telling it. It was also getting pretty late, and so there was a level of tiredness/loopiness in her voice.

Course

Introduction to Folklore/English 2210

Instructor

Dr. Lynne McNeil

Semester and year

Fall 2017

Theme

G7: Appearances or Manifestations of Supernatural Beings or Revenants

EAD Number

1.1.2.10.28

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